Methods are provided for improved recovery of organic salts, such as ionic liquids or organic salts comprising quaternary organic cations, in an industrial alumina production process, such as the Bayer process. These methods include (i) using an organic salt for the removal of impurities in an industrial process for the production of alumina; (ii) subjecting the spent organic salt to a recycling operation that generates at least one exit stream having a measureable amount of the organic salt {e.g., by entrainment or by solubility of the organic salt in the exit stream); (iii) collecting and treating the exit stream (s) with an inorganic salt, in an amount effective to induce phase separation; and (iv) recovering the organic phase containing the recovered organic salt. These methods and compositions allow alumina refinery plants to use organic salts for removal of industrial process streams in an economical manner, due to the efficient recovery of the organic salt.